Sisal Rope Artwork

Yay! It’s that time again – time for the Monthly Home Depot DIY Gift Challenge! I’m so excited for this months’ challenge; it’s been my favorite challenge so far! Just in case you’re not familiar with the Monthly Gift Challenge, each month one blogger from our group of 13 will choose an item from Home Depot, then we each make a creative gift for a specified recipient using that item. This months’ item was natural sisal rope, any thickness; chosen by Kat from Home Made Interest. The recipient is a best friend.

*This post is not endorsed or sponsored in any way by the Home Depot. We just love the store and its products and thought it would be a fun and challenging collaboration.

I decided to make my gift for my sweet sister-in-law, who is one of my besties, and also happens to have a birthday right around the corner. Having just moved into a new house, she’s been trying to furnish and personalize her new space to reflect her and her daughter’s tastes, so I thought I would make some artwork for her walls.

So here was my thought process when approaching this project: The artwork needed to fit her decorating theme, which is rustic with a bit of a Southwest flair, but also needed to be fun and youthful, to reflect her young family’s tastes, too. And of course, it had to incorporate rope, which actually isn’t too hard to do when going for a rustic look.

After drawing up several designs, I settled on a group of three art pieces; one large, planked piece with a dark stain and the word “family” spelled out using the rope; one smaller, colorful “heart” outline, and one fun, trendy “arrow”.

Here’s a list of the supplies needed to make this project:

Natural sisal rope – 3/8″ x 50 ft. (you won’t use all of it, this is just the way it came packaged)

2 5″x 1″ x 8′ pieces of wood

1 3″ x 1/2″ x 4′ piece of wood

3 metal braces and screws

Saw (OR you can have the friendly sales associates at Home Depot cut the wood to your measurements!)

Once dry, attach your 4 ft planks together using the metal braces, spaced about 6 inches from each end

Attach your 1 ft. planks together using one bracket placed in the middle of the pieces of wood

Now comes the fun part! If you are confident in your handwriting abilities, you could probably draw your wording onto the boards using a pencil, but because I’m not so confident, I typed my words into a word document, printed them, then cut them out and used them as a template. I used the font Bradley Hand ITC increased to size 575. To avoid using up all my printer ink, I changed the “text effects” to one with a thin outline and very little coloring inside the border.

Using my templates, I taped the letters onto my wood, then traced using a piece of white chalk. I then glued my rope onto the wood using the traced letters as my guide. I cut the rope where needed to make the writing look nice; this is something you will have to use your own judgement on. I’m not going to lie, this took a little bit of time, but I think it was well worth it.

*Tip – to keep the rope from unraveling once it’s cut, put a small dab of hot glue on the end, covering thoroughly.

Next, I traced a heart shape onto my 1 ft. planks, then glued the rope on top of the outline. This was a much faster process than the wording!

Then it’s time for the arrow art. I used a piece of blue painters tape to make my arrow shape, then traced it with a pencil. I then used watered down white chalk paint to paint my arrow. Once dry, I wrapped some rope around one end of the arrow (gluing in place on the backside, and made a “hanger” – then wrapped the rope around the other side of the arrow (gluing in place on the backside). Trust me, it sounds far more complicated than it actually is.

The last thing to do is attach your hanging hardware to the back of your arwork, then hang it!

And now my sister-in-law has some fun, personalized artwork for her new home!

I hope you enjoyed this Home Depot Gift Challenge! Please make sure you stop by and visit the other talented bloggers participating in the challenge – just click on the pictures below to be taken to each site.

Thanks so much Laura! It really was much easier than I thought it would be. It did take me a little bit longer than I expected, but most of that time was spent waiting for paint and glue to dry. So glad you liked the artwork! Thank you for stopping by!

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